Dave Mustaine co-wrote the legendary track during his time with Metallica
Strap in – Megadeth’s cover of a Metallica classic is finally here.
On Friday, Megadeth released their final studio album. The self-titled record features a collection of new songs, and one bonus track – a cover of Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning.” Dave Mustaine co-wrote the track during his time with Metallica in the early 1980s.
Stream the official audio below.
The “Ride the Lightning” cover follows the previously revealed “Let There Be Thrash.” The track is a textbook thrash metal anthem, and was the third single from the album alongside “I Don’t Care” and “Tipping Point.” The entire album is out now through Mustaine’s own label Tradecraft, an imprint in partnership with Frontiers Label Group’s new BLKIIBLK label. It launched with the project’s first single.
“When Megadeth started we said we would be fast and furious…we said so on the flyers we handed out,” frontman Dave Mustaine says. “This song is fast and furious. Know it! It has a very hooky chorus that draws you in and you can’t help but play air guitar and headbang to this one.
“It’s the second video from the new record that we made with Keith [Leman], who also directed ‘I Don’t Care.’ It was a blast to make and it’s a tribute to my first Sensei, Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez and my Professor, Reggie Almieda. Everyone on the set was really stoked to see each of us do our stunts. In the end, we got the balance of shredding and ass kicking just right!”
Regarding the previously revealed “I Don’t Care,” Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine said, “How many times have you wanted to say this to someone? I know you want to! Deep down inside, if we had the balls, we would tell more people, ‘I don’t care’ more often.”
Musically, Mustaine explains, “Part of the main riff in this track had been floating around in my head since we did The Sick, The Dying… and The Dead! so I was pumped to start recording ‘I Don’t Care’ for this LP. I really love the guitar nuances in the track. There is the main rhythm riff, next, a very deliberate down-picking part, next, the octave chords with jump picking on octave notes (while still down-picking!). And the soloing and back and forth between me and Teemu [Mäntysaari] is magnificent!”
To accompany their final LP, Megadeth are also planning a global farewell tour kicking off in 2026. In addition to their own headlining shows, the band will also be serving as special guests for Iron Maiden on the upcoming North American leg of Maiden’s ongoing Run For Your Lives Tour. Frontman Dave Mustaine is also releasing a new memoir next year. More details on the book will be revealed in the coming months.
“There’s so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional,” Mustaine says. “Most of them don’t get to go out on their own terms on top, and that’s where I’m at in my life right now. I have traveled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them.
Dave adds, “We can’t wait for you to hear this album and see us on tour. If there was ever a perfect time for us to put out a new album, it’s now. If there was ever a perfect time to tour the world, it’s now. This is also a perfect time for us to tell you that it’s our last studio album. We’ve made a lot of friends over the years and I hope to see all of you on our global farewell tour. Don’t be mad, don’t be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years. We have done something together that’s truly wonderful and will probably never happen again. We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it’s played, and we changed the world. The bands I played in have influenced the world. I love you all for it. Thank you for everything.”
Megadeth are always and forever the point of no return for metal. It would be nearly impossible to conceive where heavy music and culture would’ve gone without the band founded, fronted, and fueled by vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, and producer Dave Mustaine. The blast radius of their impact has only magnified since 1983. Thus far, they have sold 50 million records worldwide, received a GRAMMY® Award (with 12 additional nominations), generated billions of streams, notched seven Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, and enthralled millions of diehard fans in arenas and stadiums across the globe. Their catalog spans indisputable classics such as the platinum Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? (cited at No. 8 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time), the platinum Rust In Peace, and double-platinum Countdown To Extinction, which captured No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
Meanwhile, Dystopia notched a Top 3 debut and earned a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Metal Performance” with its title track. They only upped the ferocity with The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! in 2022. It saw them return to #3, receive a “Best Metal Performance” GRAMMY® Award nomination for “We’ll Be Back,” and incite rave reviews. Their influence can be felt practically everywhere—whether it be Post Malone proudly sporting a tattoo of “So Far, So Good… So What!,” Homer Simpson’s iPod displaying their moniker during an episode, or Showtime’s smash hit series Billions and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey utilizing Megadeth in plot points. The band have delivered simultaneously relevant and timeless records in five decades now, setting the pace for the thrash renaissance of the eighties, tearing through the MTV years of the nineties with swagger and style, maintaining their stride in the post-Y2K 2000s, elevating to canonical heights in the social media and streaming era of the 2010s, and unassumingly harnessing the uncertainty and unease of the Post-Pandemic world into their boldest, biggest, and best work yet.
Along the way, Megadeth extended their influence even further. During 2016, the band entered the spirits world with their very first signature beer À Tout Le Monde followed by Saison 13 in 2019. The brand asserted itself as a player in the beverage space and impressively moved over 15 million pints. Joining forces with Keystone in 2025, they ignite the next phase of Megadeth Beer on the biggest global platform yet.
Beyond his role as a music icon, Dave founded the visionary wine brand House of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking. The brand launched with the 2013 Symphony Interrupted Cabernet Sauvignon which was inspired by the band’s groundbreaking collaboration with the San Diego Symphony.